WWF-UK: WWF opposes elephant captures on Sumatra
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WWF opposes elephant captures on Sumatra
Monday 13 March 2006
WWF strongly recommends to the Riau Forestry Service that it stops capturing and translocating elephants in Riau Province, Sumatra.
Recent captures in Riau have had a very high incidence of death as many of the endangered Sumatran elephants die during, and immediately after, the capture process.
The translocations cause further problems as surviving elephants are likely to leave the forest where they were released and start raiding surrounding villages.
Currently, a herd of up to 51 elephants is lost near the province's Balai Raja village, and has been raiding crops and damaging homes in the village. The elephants have strayed 25km away from their home - the Libo forest - which is being illegally logged at an alarming rate.
The government should stop the illegal logging and drive the elephants back to their forest home. However, in December 2005, eight of these elephants were secretly released by Riau Forestry Agency into the very small Tesso Nilo National Park. Within just four weeks, WWF filmed them raiding the fields of nearby Lubuk Kembang Bunga village.
"Unfortunately, the government is focusing on the symptom - capturing homeless elephants that come into conflict with people - rather than dealing with the cause - uncontrolled conversion of forests," said Nazir Foead, director of WWF's Species Conservation Programme in Indonesia.
Since 1992, the Riau Conservation Office (BKSDA) has been calling for an elephant conservation area to be declared in Tesso Nilo. But so far only a small, 38,000-hectare area has been declared a national park. The park should be increased to a proposed 100,000-hectare area to ensure any translocated elephants can be accommodated. WWF is calling on the Indonesian government to make this a reality and to stop forest conversion, illegal logging and encroachment.
Since 2004, WWF has been working with communities surrounding the Tesso Nilo forest to avoid human-elephant conflict. During that time, losses declined by 80 per cent, no houses have been destroyed and no human or elephant lives have been lost.
NGOs and the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry developed a human-elephant conflict mitigation protocol for Riau in 2004 that would avoid the kinds of cases that have occurred in recent weeks. If the protocol had been followed in Balai Raja, it would have taught communities how to mitigate the conflict without suffering losses and without the need to capture elephants.
"Putting elephants into our neighbouring forest cannot be accepted. These elephants will soon attack us. We are not able to clean up the mess of Balai Raja's problem," said Radaimon, leader of a Tesso Nilo Community Forum.
The translocations cause further problems as surviving elephants are likely to leave the forest where they were released and start raiding surrounding villages.
Currently, a herd of up to 51 elephants is lost near the province's Balai Raja village, and has been raiding crops and damaging homes in the village. The elephants have strayed 25km away from their home - the Libo forest - which is being illegally logged at an alarming rate.
The government should stop the illegal logging and drive the elephants back to their forest home. However, in December 2005, eight of these elephants were secretly released by Riau Forestry Agency into the very small Tesso Nilo National Park. Within just four weeks, WWF filmed them raiding the fields of nearby Lubuk Kembang Bunga village.
"Unfortunately, the government is focusing on the symptom - capturing homeless elephants that come into conflict with people - rather than dealing with the cause - uncontrolled conversion of forests," said Nazir Foead, director of WWF's Species Conservation Programme in Indonesia.
Since 1992, the Riau Conservation Office (BKSDA) has been calling for an elephant conservation area to be declared in Tesso Nilo. But so far only a small, 38,000-hectare area has been declared a national park. The park should be increased to a proposed 100,000-hectare area to ensure any translocated elephants can be accommodated. WWF is calling on the Indonesian government to make this a reality and to stop forest conversion, illegal logging and encroachment.
Since 2004, WWF has been working with communities surrounding the Tesso Nilo forest to avoid human-elephant conflict. During that time, losses declined by 80 per cent, no houses have been destroyed and no human or elephant lives have been lost.
NGOs and the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry developed a human-elephant conflict mitigation protocol for Riau in 2004 that would avoid the kinds of cases that have occurred in recent weeks. If the protocol had been followed in Balai Raja, it would have taught communities how to mitigate the conflict without suffering losses and without the need to capture elephants.
"Putting elephants into our neighbouring forest cannot be accepted. These elephants will soon attack us. We are not able to clean up the mess of Balai Raja's problem," said Radaimon, leader of a Tesso Nilo Community Forum.
